So who has filed? New York’s own Jimmy McMillan who represented the Rent is Too Damn High party in the Gubernatorial race last year. He’ll be on the GOP side, even though he is not a Republican because he doesn’t want to directly challenge Obama. The bizarre thing is McMillan wasn’t the craziest candidates during the race for Governor. There even was an ex-stripper.

The election is only 19 months away – literally! I guess potential candidates should start forming those exploratory committees and file their papers. Time’s a wasting for precious campaigning!

I’m just thankful the mudslinging hasn’t started yet. That’s the second worse part of election season after it’s length. Excuse me for not wanting to watch grown men and women, one of whom will be our future leader, degrade themselves by getting dirty for the whole country and world to see.

Nov. 6, 2012 is still 19 months away. That is 580 days.For every one of those days from this point onward, politicians will be strategizing and spreading their message in preparation for Election Day. It doesn’t matter whether they are Obama, or are one of his numerous potential Republican opponents. They will form exploratory committees, amass signatures, generate press coverage and build websites.

First play this game. Try to guess if Sheen or Gaddafi said these crazy quotes. Then you can read my column, which was inspired by playing this game a couple times.

The idea that the news will only cover what the people want is nothing new but it just is really a sore spot right now as America would rather get a front row seat to Charlie Sheen’s self-destruction then be up to date on what’s happening in Libya. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but we were captivated when Egypt went on strike and Mubarak finally stepped down. I guess we didn’t have a celebrety crisis to distract us then.

I covered South Dakota’s adventure in trying to expand justifiable homicide to protect unborn children for my most recent column. I was glad they shelved it. You can read the whole piece here: but I included some meaty quotes

Somehow the bill passed the state’s judiciary committee last week. Its shaky rhetoric establishes justifiable homicide of an abortion worker as the lawful defense of one’s self, spouse, parent, child, master, mistress, servant, or an unborn child that belongs to that person. By the time the rest of the nation heard about this bill, it was branded as the bill that would allow the murder of abortion workers.

…

However, there are deeper consequences to such a bill being passed. The bill would not only affect abortion workers, but also the outcome of every murder trial in the state as well. Trials would become ten times more complicated as the defense would scramble to use the bill’s muddled diction and vague definitions as defense. Prosecutors would have to wade through every last detail of the case in order to prove not only that the defendant did commit homicide, but that it wasn’t justified in any sense of the bill. The burden of proof for the prosecution would become even heavier.

Already I have to start thinking about Christmas. Last year I wrote how I was conflicted over the holiday. And this year I think I still am, but not nearly to the extent I was last year. I’m more at peace celebrating the many different Christmases all on the same day than I was last year.

For one holiday it can be too materialistic (why else do we have Black Friday), too religious (How can Jesus be the reason for the season, he wasn’t born on 12/25) and yet too secular all at the same time (“okay if you’re putting up a nativity scene we want to see a Menorah and Santa and some Kwanzaa candles while you’re at it”, and saying Happy Holidays) . The holiday has been claimed by the Christians as theirs to own, yet many of the traditions, like the Christmas Tree, Yule log, and gift giving, come from Pre-Christian times or pagan societies. Even the idea of the birth of the savior was co-opted from many pagan’s worship of the rebirth of their sun god.

By suspending and then un-suspending Keith Olbermann over last weekend, MSNBC committed an epic fail. They claim to be objective, but after this stunt, I don’t think any one will believe them.

Olbermann broke the rules by donating to political campaigns. He’s a broadcast journalist, reporting on the news (trying to be objective) and this is a slap in the face of MSNBC’s perceived objectivity. But what I din’t get a chance to ponder over in my Chronicle Column is whether there should be a distinction between Olbermann the average citizen and Olbermann who goes on air every night. The only problem is that political donations are public record. Anyone can request that info, so Olbermann’s donations would be easy found by his viewers. While he might be objective on air, his donations would say something different. However should he be denied a chance to donate just because of his job? I can see the argument going both ways.

This experience should at least teach MSNBC something about it’s ‘objectivity. Call me a cynic, but I think objectivity in journalism is a dying practice. It’s been dying a slow death ever since the rise of the 24 hour news cycle and the network news that went along with it. Whenever we are told information or news we need to carefully examine who is giving it to us and why or else we are too easily misled.

So there’s a new reality, but good reality that tugs at your heart strings, TV on NBC called School Pride. It’s basically Extreme Makeover School Edition with lesser-known celebrities. Failing schools submit a video and the renovation is done in a week and is pro-bono. As I was watching the first episode on Hulu one day when I was avoiding work, I thought that it looked great on the surface but didn’t have any substance. That went for the theory too, that they were making things look pretty but not solving the real problems like sub-par teachers or uninvolved parents or just plain old not enough money.

And yet… there are studies out proving that when kids are invested in their learning environment, they perform better. So this show is trying to get kids across the nation invested in how their school looks. In the first episode, there was a post script saying test scores already improved in the six months since the renovation (done during spring break) but the other schools were renovated during the summer so there wasn’t enough time to see if test scores did improve or not.